Vermont team to visit Kentucky following lockdown of inmates

Jan. 22, 2014

Written by

Free Press Staff Writer

A team of Corrections Department officials will travel to Kentucky next week to investigate why 205 Vermont inmates housed at a privately run prison are in lockdown status, Commissioner Andrew Pallito says.

“We hope to know in a week’s time more of what’s going on,” Pallito said Wednesday. “We have a plan, and our team is going down there to make sure the plan is followed through by the staff there.”

The 205 inmates are among 460 Vermont prisoners serving time at the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Ky. The facility is run by Corrections Corp. of America, which has a contract with Vermont to house some of its prison population.

Pallito said Vermont has become increasingly concerned with prisoner conduct at the jail and has been pushing Corrections Corp. officials to address the problem.

He said the lockdown was triggered by an assault last week between inmates in the section of the facility called the West Dormitory. Another 255 inmates in the jail’s South Dormitory were uninvolved with the assaults and are not on lockdown , Pallito said.

No one was hospitalized as a result of the incident, but the assault was the third at the jail since last summer. One of the earlier assaults did lead to a prisoner’s being taken to a hospital off site for treatment, the commissioner said.

Details about the lockdown were disclosed to lawmakers earlier this week during a meeting of the House Institutions and Corrections Committee.

“We’re trying to figure out what is causing this level of violence,” Pallito said. “The early indications are that this is the result of some gang action springing up.”

Pallito said some of the inmates in Kentucky are men who were convicted in Vermont of drug-trafficking offenses but who are not Vermonters.

“These are people who purportedly are affiliated with gangs, not necessarily from Vermont communities,” he said. “It’s more big-name gang names, like the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings.”

Pallito said the team he is sending to Kentucky will try to learn from inmates who and what is causing the assaults. He said if that can be determined, the instigators could be removed from the jail and placed in a different facility, either back in Vermont or at one in Arizona run by Corrections Corp.

(Page 2 of 2)

The Vermont team also will examine how well Corrections Corp. officials are responding to the situation, Pallito said. He said the lockdown protocol already has been eased for inmates in the south dorm who officials have determined were not responsible for the assaults.

“CCA has been pretty responsive to this point, bringing in extra personnel and having more regular meetings with us,” Pallito said. “I’m happy they are taking this seriously and are trying to figure out a way to stop it.”

Pallito said the team going to Kentucky would remain there for about three weeks.

Seth Lipschutz, a lawyer for the Prisoner’s Rights Office of the state Defender General’s Office, said conditions at the Kentucky jail are such that assaults between inmates were inevitable.

“It’s not a good situation there,” he said. “I’m surprised it took so long for something like this to happen.”

Lipschutz said the problem is compounded by the fact that the prisoners are 1,000 miles from home, and the facility is understaffed.

“They set very few rules,” he said of the prison operators. “Just don’t mess with the guards or get close to the fence.”

David Frye, the warden for Lee Adjustment Center, did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.